Craig....your experience is just like mine...and you express well what it was like to be in the borg in the late '70s - '80s. I jumped ship in the early '90s and so like you i only learned of the change after the fact, but it stunned me just the same. I remember in the late '80s how old the 1914 generation seemed, and yet there was still the Soviet bloc where JWs were banned, and I couldn't understand how the good news was to be preached in all the nations before the end, and how we could be "bloodguilty" for failing to go out in field service when there were whole nations of ppl who don't get to hear the good news of the kingdom at all. That "bloodguilty" doctrine made armageddon seem very far away indeed. But that teaching on "this generation" was solid as rock, the ultimate proof of the end coming so soon, it made sense, seemed very clear....and the JWs were the only ppl on this PLANET who understood that....so obviously they had to have the Trooth (nice circular reasoning).....so when they did an Emily Litella like in 1995....i'm sure it had an impact second only to 1975's no show....
Leolaia